1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a job management device that can perform job management, a job management program, and an image forming apparatus including the job management device and program.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, a job management device, such as a print server, puts jobs (such as print commands) which are received from terminal devices into a queue. The job management device also manages the jobs placed in the queue so that the jobs are serially executed (for example, printing operations of the jobs are serially instructed to a printer). There is provided a service that charges already-executed jobs to users of the terminal devices that have issued the executed jobs.
In the job management device that offers the above service, when several jobs, which are issued by terminal devices, are put into the queue at almost the same time, it is not reasonable to charge the issuer of the last-executed job the same amount as the issuer of the first-executed job because it takes a long time before the last job is executed. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 9-128645 discloses reasonable job management, wherein a job management device calculates a load on the job management device. That is, when a load of a job on the job management device is light, a charge to an issuer for the job is low. When a load of a job on the job management device is heavy, a charge to an issuer for the job is high.